how were copies of vinyl made in "third-party" countries

To add:

If one wants a good analog 70s LP copy of let say, any 70's Pink Floyd... and is perusing eBay, look for EMI/Harvest in mint shape from Canada, instead of the  USA.

That kind of thing. Do yer research, if so inclined.

Ah, the joys of the Analog era! I won’t be shedding any tears!

It’s a mirror, son. Stop stabbing at people and you won’t get stabbed back.

Fixing it involves dealing with yourself, first.

Come back when you find your humanity. Thanks.

OTOH, we would not understand who and what nice people are, if you did not provide perspective. So there is that value. For whatever it is worth.

@teo_audio 

That's a lot of awesome info! I wonder if there is any processing data anywhere on the sleeve or the LP, like abbreviations for the manufacturing steps.

I will definitely look for Canadian prints.

@lewm @drbond 

I have a lot of Russian records, they are awful. Yugoslavian records: flawless. In the 70s and 80s, there was no competition in Eastern Europe. Every company (other than hairdressers and mechanics) was a monopoly in their region. They could make horrible or flawless quality products, it did not make a difference to them. The biggest factor was the culture and the heritage: e.g. Hungary was a science and math oriented country, full of nerds, which showed, musicians cared about quality in every sense, and they couldn't (I assume) cut good copies just for themselves - if they wanted a good LP, they had to have a good all around process.

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@teo_audio @bdp24 @russ69 

is there a way to tell if an LP is likely to sound better from looking at it? Such as the weight? Gloss? Little telling signs? I browse a lot of used records and so far it has been a complete hit and miss. 

Generally, as you have found ..original copies from the smaller orignal country can sound quite amazing. Mostly due to the possibility of the shortness and simplicity of the tape-to-LP path.

Regarding EMI/Harvest analog originals...those from Great Britain (smaller home town advantage) can many times sound the best. Eg, you generally wanna consider buying early Black Sabbath as a British pressing, if you can find a mint one. And the same for a few hundred other artists from GB. Good luck with that....

the trick here, is that the Canadian copy generally sells right along side the US copy, on ebay.com and ebay.ca... and all things being equal, like price/costs (which they are not always), the Canadian copy can be better, more often than not.

but, a thousand other un-researched situations exist, so..it is what it is...

The desired abbreviations may be on the lacquer and sometimes are. but deciphering their meaning is not easy as the language shorthand is their own internal company language and each is different.